Halloween

 I feel like we had many Halloweens this year.  Well, I guess I mean to say that we dressed up a bunch of different times.  So fun for the kids and oh so fun for mom.  We first had our neighborhood Halloween carnival. 

A couple years ago I found some cheap toddler costumes and so I bought a few (they were just a couple dollars).  One was a devil costume.  At the time Carter was a sweet infant and I couldn't imagine him wearing a devil costume.  Well, when I came across them right before Halloween I knew Tom would find it perfect that Carter had a devil costume to wear.  Carter has his sweetness but if you're his parent you know he has his not so sweetness too.  3 has been a "devilish" year for him.

He actually looks really innocent in this picture. 

But then it came for Carter's neighborhood preschool party and his devil costume was in Gavin's room and Gavin was asleep.  So I went through Zac's closet trying to find something he could wear and found Zac's old firefighter costume.  I had spent hours and hours making this costume for Zac years ago (under much direction from Tom and how to make it just like a NY firefighter uniform) and I was so glad I found it before Halloween because it fit Carter perfectly.  I would have been so upset if Carter never got the chance to wear it.  So the devil costume was out and he was definitely wearing this costume for the rest of our Halloween festivities. 

The Friday before Halloween I went and volunteered at Zac's classroom party.  I helped the kids make these edible eyeballs that you see in the picture with Zac. 

 And I had to stop by Abbi's class and make an appearance since I wasn't helping in her class. 

Then came Halloween night.  Well, or the Saturday night we went trick or treating since Halloween was on a Sunday.  Zac woke up that morning sick to his stomach.  He spent the whole day sick and I didn't think he was going to go trick or treating but amazingly he started to "feel better" right before trick or treating.  He went but came home earlier than everyone else.  And yes, Gavin is missing in this picture.  

What a horrible mother I am but Gavin never got dressed up on Halloween.  Refer to the first picture in this post to prove that Gavin dressed up sometime for Halloween this year.  What can I say?  He's the fourth child.  He wasn't going trick or treating.  But in all reality this is why he didn't dress up....

 

The kid was having one of his many grumpy moments.  Why bother him with dressing up. 

Gavin turns one (how did that happen?)

Gavin turned one this month.  It hard for me to believe that it's been one year since he was born.  The year passed by too fast.  And I really was trying to make it go slow.  Babies just don't stay babies long enough.

 

Gavin's birthday was quite uneventful.  My first two babies got much bigger 1st birthday bashes I'm a little embarrassed to say.  But I've learned that when they are 1 they don't care and in all reality they would just like to be home to get their naps that make them happy.  So that's what Gavin did for his birthday.  He got good naps.  Zac and Abbi were home from school that day so we did go to IKEA because I had promised them a trip to the playplace there but with kids out of school that day the wait was too long so we just had some lunch and left.  Tom had to work on Gavin's birthday but Tom's parents came down for dinner and the birthday celebration.  

Gavin was more annoyed by opening presents and eating cake than anything.

He wouldn't even really eat his cake.  The frosting was good but I think he didn't like the texture of cake.  He's too picky.  

We had a second celebration on Sunday with my family.  I didn't really have much a birthday cake plan but the day before decided I better figure something out to feed all the people and I found a picture online and made a cake.  Marshmallow fondant makes one easy cake and it turned out cute (if I do say so myself) without really much work.  Carter was thrilled to blow out the candles for Gavin (Carter is obsessed with birthdays if you don't know).  

We have loved having Gavin join our family this past year.  We love having a baby around.  Well, maybe everyone but Carter.  Carter loves having someone to boss around.   But Gavin is a joy.  He started out as a chunk (10 1/2 pounds in case you forgot) but now not even Tom can call him "fatso" anymore.  At his 1 year appointment he had actually lost weight from his 9 month appointment and hasn't even doubled his birth weight.  He has become super picky (doesn't even like cake?!) and a challenge to feed.  He better grow out of that.  We're currently always trying to trick him to eat things.  He loves crawling, going outside, rough housing with Tom, and watching our dog Maia.  And he loves to be held.  Well, not just held but held while you walk around.  He does not like to be put down.  He's been a bit high maintenance lately.  He gives sweet open mouth kisses, loves his froggy and elmo, hates his carseat, and loves to crawl up the stairs.  We love our Gavin and we're just trying to hold on to all those "baby" moments we have left.    

10 years

 

10 years ago today we did this:

 

 (book given to me by some of my 2nd graders at the time)

 

our California reception

the leftovers we enjoyed for weeks from the cake bar (& my crazy brother)

Happy Anniversary to us!

Zac's Baptism

On June 5th Zac was baptized.  For weeks we had been talking about this day and when the day finally came Zac was excited.  All his cousins, aunt, uncles and grandmas and grandpas came and that made it even more special for Zac. 

I really meant to take more pictures but in the craziness of everything I didn't.  Afterwards we had brunch at our house and at Zac's request we had crepes. We had a crepe bar, mini quiches, fruit and muffins. 

We also got a new nicer camera and at the last moment decided not to take it with us and now I regret it and wish I had.  Oh well.  I did take a picture of Zac with his new prized possessions- his scriptures and mini hymn book (oh the fun of a mini hymn book- maybe it will get him to sing). 

At the end of the day in Zac's tired state he sadly told me he didn't want the day to end.  I asked him why and he said, "You know.  You only get baptized once and this day will never happen again."  He's definitely my sweet tender-hearted son.  I'm very proud of Zac and his choice to be baptized.  He's a great example to his brothers and sister.  I hope he'll always the good memories of his baptism day. 

Our finished kitchen floor- finally

 Our kitchen floor has been finished for awhile now.  I just haven't gotten around to taking pictures (ie. taking pictures when things are picked up).  So here they finally are. 

The before pictures :

 

 And here are the after pictures:

It was definitely quite a project but very worth it.  It you look closely you'll notice the baseboards and railing aren't back up yet.  All in time (at least that's what Tom tells me.)  But Tom did a fabulous job and I love our new floor.  It is so much better than what we had before and having the wood floor instead of the carpet in the high traffic entry way is immensely better.  I can't imagine why they put carpet there in the first place.  It wasn't our favorite having to put our old cabinets back in and the countertop has a few dings on it from the move but we need to get our basement finished (we have way too many kids for 3 bedrooms and such) and then we plan on updating the kitchen a bit more.  Never enough time and money for everything. 

We left our kitchen looking like this-

And headed off to where it was warm. 

First stop was Las Vegas. My aunt Jan lives here and she's always telling the kids they need to come visit.  It was a little windy but definitely warmer.  We ventured out to the Las Vegas strip to the M&M store with Jan and her 2 grandsons.  After the craziness of navigating ourselves to parking and getting out of the MGM hotel we ended up at the store.  It was 4 levels of everything m&m and even had a 3-D movie.  After awhile Carter had a meltdown.  See him here hiding behind the m&m backpacks.  

 

 

So we decided it was time to go.  The kids of course wanted to buy something.  I of course didn't want to buy some m&m toy just to have it sit with the rest of the toys in our house so I told the kids we would buy them each a few m&ms from these dispensers.  

First of all, these m&ms are $12.99 a pound.  Yes, a pound.  And yes, you can buy a pound at the grocery store for $3 or $4.  So trying to make my children happy but not break the bank I filled each child's bag with roughly 15 m&ms.  I got a small bag for me with about 15 coconut m&ms (yum!) and Tom filled a bag a little fuller of m&ms (having not seen the $12.99/pound sign).  I went up to pay for them and wondered how much this was really going to cost us.  That would be a little over $10.  Rip off.  But what are you going to do, tell them to put them back in the machine?  See, the m&m people are smart people.   Jan let her grandsons use the dispenser to fill the bag.  She spent $33 on m&ms.  So, don't buy m&ms at the M&M store. 

While at Jan's house Carter found love with her dog Newman.  He was one of the highlights of the trip for Carter.   He loved Newman. 

So the next day we went to church with Jan 

and then we were off to Arizona.  Where it was even warmer (thank goodness).  We went to visit our good friends the Petersons that sadly moved away last year.  We have really missed them.  Our kids used to always play together and they match up in ages perfectly.  Zac has especially missed his best friend Burke.  It was 3 days of heaven for the kids as they played the days away.  I barely talked to Zac the whole time we were there.  

We went to the park, 

 

the kids loved the constant sleepover

we visited some museums

and the kids swam and swam in the 80 degree weather.  The weather was beautiful. 

It was the perfect vacation and Zac told me he wants to spend a month next time we go.  We had a wonderful time.  

Here's the 2 babies- the same size but Liv is 5 months older than Gavin.   Gavin's a little chunky. 

  

On the way home we stopped again in Vegas and went to a chocolate factory with a cactus garden

and visited my Grandfather.  

As as we were almost home, it started to snow.  We definitely miss the warm weather and can't wait for it to arrive here. 

Pictures to come of the finished kitchen floor that's been a long time in the making.